2024 was a hekkin' good year as far as acquiring bikes goes - I got bikes from Canadian legends Paul Brodie, Chris Dekerf, and, Guiseppe Marinoni....
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Who am I kidding anyway - these bikes are not recent. We're into summer '23 and older now. 1. Marin Eldridge Grade. Amazing paint on this. Low level bikes got paint like this in 1990. I don't know how companies made any money on them. Well, I suppose I do - they paid the Taiwanese labourers peanuts. 2. Kona Lava Dome. I bought this as a heavily used and scraped up bike, repainted and redecaled it, and it became a gorgeous vintage machine. Maybe the only thing I've done better lately is... 3. GT Zaskar. This was an awful thing when I got it - no paint, mismatched wheels, 130mm Marzocchi Dirt Jumper fork - it was just all kinds of wrong. So, it got fresh paint, new decals, Shimano XTR bits, and it became what it was; an incredible vintage bike that rode beautifully. I probably should have kept it.  Last weekend I was visiting a friend and as we toured his collection, a Rocky Mountain Vertex frame hanging on the wall caught my eye. The decals on that frame blew my mind, because I saw something I had never seen before...I'm really liking this series of posts, I'm finding pictures of bikes I totally forgot about. 1. Lemond Poprad. I REALLY wanted to keep this as I'm a huge Lemond fan, but it was just too small. I took the bar cons off it, put something else on, and made 900% profit on it. I almost felt guilty about this one. 2. Giant NRS. This was the kind of deal I love; buy a bike that's missing just a few parts, make it all work with new cables and brake pads, maybe even score something cool off it (like a Precision Billet rear derailleur in this case) and then sell it for 3x what I paid. 3. Gary Fisher Sugar. This was another deal like the Giant, I just had to put bars and a stem on it, make it shift, and it's easy money. I am stretching the definition of 'recent' here now. 1. Iron Horse Raider. This was part of the package deal with the second Iron Horse from part 2. It also got a Shimano CUES drivetrain, and also didn't sell for $150. Nor did it sell when I put all the low level 7 speed stuff I had lying around for $50. Hell, I had trouble giving this bike away. 2. Cinelli Supercorsa. If you don't know, this bike has been made by Cinelli, mostly unchanged, since the 50's. It still has a 1" threaded fork. I got this for song, and incredibly, I'm going to lose money on it. 3. Rocky Mountain Metro. This is a '92 Metro, and is pretty much a Hammer with 700c wheels. I would have kept it if it was a size larger. I've already got a '90 Metro, but the '92 was just so cool. I thought I would post a few pics of bikes I had built over the years here. I can't remember if I had said anything about them here or not, so apologies in advance for any repetition. 1. Iron Horse ARS 4.0. I went out to buy one of these bikes, and I guess the guy saw me coming, because I came home with two. I swapped a Shimano CUES drivetrain on to it, and could not sell it for $150. I've torn it down and I'm going to repaint it in the spring. 2. Kona Lava Dome. I think this is an '89, and whatever year it is, the paint on it is mind-blowing. It was original, with some pretty worn out SunTour parts, so I took all the Shimano LX stuff off the Fusion from gallery 1, and now I have this super clean Kona ready for the '25 show circuit. 3. Porsche Bike FS. This Votec-built Porsche seemed like a no-brainer as a flip. I had to buy new brakes for it though as the Hayes it came with were toast. I maybe made a modest amount on it. I thought I would post a few pics of bikes I had built over the years here. I can't remember if I had said anything about them here or not, so apologies in advance for any repetition. 1. Rocky Mountain Fusion. That's a '92 Fusion I bought for next to nothing that seemingly had never been used. It was incredibly clean. I put a new Shimano CUES drivetrain on it, and actually sold it for a small profit. 2. Kona Kilauea. I think this was a '93 or '94 that I got as a singlespeed. I redid it with as much of the black Shimano LX group as I could, and put some Marzocchi XC500 lowers on the XC51 fork it had. I did eventually sell it, but it was way harder to sell than I ever thought it would be. 3. Cannondale M200SE. The Moose. I thought the Viper red Cannondale was an iconic bike that would be a cool project, and I turned it from a commuter into a period-correct 'roll around' bike with Shimano LX cantis, Ritchey Logic cranks, and ethereal Innova tires. However, other things came along, and I ended up returning it to its commuter roots and selling it.  You are looking at a 1994 (?) Fila Teton mountain bike. And this is all I really know about it...
Friends, I believe the COVID gravy train has left the station, possibly never to return. I have all these bikes for sale, and have had ZERO interest in them. It's genuinely baffling....
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AuthorI'm 80. I wrench more than I ride and I like it that way. Archives
February 2025
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